430 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
almost overpowering, and has either suspended our 
conversation, or induced an abrupt transition to 
some other topic. 
This is a most distressing consideration, and is 
a subject often brought before a Missionary’s mind, 
from the circumstances into which his engage¬ 
ments lead him, and the intimate connexion of his 
every effort with the future and eternal destinies of 
those around him; while it furnishes, next to the 
love of Christ, one of the most powerful incentives 
to devotedness and unabated effort. Well might 
one now engaged in this work exclaim, “ Five 
hundred millions of souls,* who are represented 
as being unenlightened ! I cannot, if I would, 
give up the idea of being a Missionary, while I 
reflect upon this vast number of my fellow-sin¬ 
ners, who are perishing for lack of knowledge. 
4 Five hundred millions !’ intrudes itself upon my 
mind wherever I go, and however I am employed. 
When I go to bed, it is the last thing that recurs 
to my memory; if I awake in the night, it is to 
meditate upon it alone; and in the morning, 
it is generally the first thing that occupies my 
thoughts.” 
What mind, under the influence of the unequi¬ 
vocal declarations of the sacred volume, and an 
acquaintance with the true condition of the hea¬ 
then, can calmly entertain the thought of the mil¬ 
lions who remain ignorant of the gospel ? 
We always told those who inquired, that it 
was not for us to say, what was the actual state 
of the departed; that of those who died in in¬ 
fancy, we were permitted to cherish the conso¬ 
latory hope of their felicity; that those who sur- 
* It is estimated that there are more than six hundred 
millions destitute of the knowledge of the gospel. 
